Provision of special educational support in Germany

This article examines gatekeeping processes in the identification of special educational needs (SEN) students in complex administrative structures in Germany. Although the categorisation of children as “in need of special educational support” is regulated differently across nations, Germany is a telling case among welfare states. Despite the increasing standardisation of procedures in the identification of SEN, the rates of special educational support in the German federal states vary greatly. The experts responsible for identifying SEN students in schools seem to play a key role in allocating resources. We discuss how educational administrators are involved as gatekeepers in identifying SEN and shaping children’s educational pathways. An analysis of legal requirements for determining SEN and interviews (N = 11) with educational administrators in five federal German states form the database for this article. The results show that the German assessment process focuses on children’s alleged deficits to determine their status and generate resources, but is rarely challenged by the gatekeepers of this process, even though the process is highly complex and has unclear, far-reaching consequences.